Adding a Simple Design Improvement to Chopsticks

Hover Chopsticks are shaped so that the tips don't touch the tabletop

After you get the hang of 'em, chopsticks are pretty darned handy; and once you've eaten a salad with them, particularly a messy one, you'll never go back to using a fork and knife.

Because the design is so simple and thousands of years old, you'd figure there's nothing you could do to improve upon them. But dining goods company AltGalley is trying. Their Hover Chopsticks are made out of carbon fiber, which is admittedly overkill; they claim the materials choice offers better grip for both your hands and the food you're picking up with the business end.

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But the one smart thing they have added is angled tips, meaning when you set them down on a table, you don't have to make that little paper chopstick rest to keep the tips off of the tabletop.

+1 on the chopstick rest. That's a whole cottage industry that gets put out of business with an invention like these! (joking)

I've learned there's an etiquette to handling chopsticks in a dinner situation that's akin to being able to hold or use a fork and knife properly. One part of this is how to pick them up and put them down (hint: it takes two hands).

Another cultural question - perhaps for our Chinese friends in the audience - are there any extra points for being able to wield the traditional heavy/long/slippery/square Chinese-style chopsticks, holding close to the ends, eating oily foods without difficulty?